If you‘re a fan of dysfunctional family dramas then this book is for you. Centering around the Hildebrandt family in the Chicago area in 1971, the story weaves between parents Russ, a pastor, and his wife Marion both in their present-day and before they met and their teenage children Perry, Clem, and Becky. There is a lot of religious discussion and symbolism throughout. At times, I think Franzen is a bit pretentious but it‘s still a strong story

This may be an #unpopularopinion, but I did not love this book. House in The Cerulean Sea is my favorite book and I was hoping to recapture the warm hug feeling I get while reading it. This book has little glimpses of that, but overall felt really heavy-handed. Klune had a lot to say apparently and I wholeheartedly agree with his message but it felt like a lot of the book was just Arthur talking at people. The kids are the best part of the story.

I listened to this on audio and the narration was very well done, but I felt the pacing of the story was off. Part 3 in particular started to really drag for me. I got to the end and felt a bit disappointed, like “That‘s it?” I appreciate the framing of the narrative essentially telling the same story 3 different ways. Overall a pick even though it was slightly anticlimactic at the end.

I pre-ordered this February and it‘s finally here!! I am so excited!

Even though this is a middle grade book, it was quite intense. Maddie is 12 years old when everyone in her Colorado town is evacuated due to an “imminent threat.” She befriends a neighbor‘s dog and manages to survive through looters, a wild dog attack, a tornado, and a fire. She visits her local library often and through sheer will and intelligence manages to survive on her own for 3 years. It really made me think about how I would do (not well!)

On the plus side, I really enjoyed hearing about some of the wacky things that people used to think could cure or treat illness. However, the fact is that real people were harmed and even killed by some of these snake oil cures. I know they wanted to keep the tone of the book more light and humorous, but not acknowledging the real toll of these felt wrong to me. ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

I won this in a Goodreads Giveaway! Woo! 🎉📚

It was a surreal experience listening to this audiobook based on the true story of a massive fire that destroyed the Maine coast in October 1947 while at the same time listening to the sounds of the fire-fighting planes dipping into the reservoir to battle a fire that was raging just over the foothills from my own home. Lucky for me my home was spared, but in October 1947 entire towns were destroyed. This book was haunting and so well-written.

I realize that I‘m not the target demographic for this one, but I really appreciate that the author wanted to write a book that was not talking down to young people in a time when that was not really considered. The concept was really fun, but some of the very dated language and characterizations ended up pulling it down from a pick to a so-so for me. With a little updating this would make a very cool movie or play. ♟️♟️♟️.5/5

A couple finds out one day that their 2 year old son is not actually theirs, their baby was switched with another while they were in the NICU. How should they proceed? Should they switch the boys back to their biological parents or keep them with the parents who have been raising them ? At first the families agree to “play nice” and share time but of course that doesn‘t last. This was a fun plot for a domestic thriller. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

I watched the show True Blood years ago and I‘ve had this book on my Kindle ever since. I finally decided to read it just to get it done but folks, it was bad. I don‘t even really know how this got published let alone made into a TV show. Just badly written. And Sookie is even more annoying in the book than she was in the TV show which I didn‘t think was possible. 🧛/5

Maybe my enjoyment of this book was lessened by the fact that I listened after work when I was usually pretty tired, but this book seemed to go on forever. Too much time was spent on the characters disagreeing about how Logan‘s travel guide company should be run, which was very tedious. I picked this up for the setting as I love anything to do with Scotland. I also enjoyed the male main character‘s Scottish accent. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Not many stories exist in the world about young adults who are navigating a cancer diagnosis, so this book fills a very important void. Jaouad is a great writer and it was very brave of her to share such a vulnerable time in her life. I didn‘t care quite as much for the 2nd half of the book detailing her post-cancer road trip, but I still very much recommend this book. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

According to the author of this book, Robin was someone who thrived on making people laugh yet at the same time could be deeply insecure and was difficult to get to know on a one-on-one level. I enjoyed reading about all of his amazing films:Good Morning Vietnam, Dead Poets Society, Mrs. Doubtfire, Good Will Hunting, Aladdin. Reading about the last few months leaving up to the end of his life was heartbreaking and I hope he is finally at peace.

I liked the first part of this book that talked about Frankie, an awkward 16 year old and her relationship with Zeke, another loner who she spends a summer with creating a poster with an enigmatic phrase that ends up causing a satanic panic. I had a hard time relating to Frankie as an adult in the last part of the book, but the author‘s note did help somewhat as Wilson explained how he essentially created this story from his own life experience.

Between a so-so and a pan for me. I found this story to be incredibly plodding and slow. An almost actress takes an entire summer to tell her adult daughters the story of her relationship with a man who went on to become a famous actor. Supposedly she has told them this story before, but they didn‘t know how their mother met their father? 🍒🍒/5

This book was so sad, but the writing is absolutely gorgeous. I don‘t think I had read a book set in Istanbul before, and I really enjoyed learning more about the city which almost becomes a character in the story itself. Tequila Leila and her friends were very well-written characters and this book will stay with me for a long time.

Is the goal of a good biography to be objective? Is that even possible? Of course Norman wrote this after John‘s death, so he was dependent on interviews with people who knew him and his journals. Yoko refused to endorse this book because she said the author was “too mean” to John. Maybe that‘s true and he chose to slant it that way, or maybe based on some of John‘s actions, especially towards women, he was just trying to tell the truth. 🎶/5

3 women move into an old house that Larry inherited from his aunt and converted into apartments. They receive a letter one day that they don‘t know who it is for asking to meet them at a coffee shop. It turns out they‘ve each been ghosted by someone in their lives so they start going to the coffee shop together each hoping the person who ghosted them will show up. They also start hearing strange noises coming from the attic. 👻👻/5

Bordering between a pick and a so-so. This book uses the same convention as “The Lovely Bones” in having the main character be dead and watching over their friends and loved ones. It‘s a bit of a survival story, but it‘s really more about the effects of the crash and dealing with grief. It‘s a bit too YA and happily-ever-after as the resolution seems to have everyone in a romantic relationship which felt a little silly and too neat.

I‘m struggling to put my feelings about this book into words. I enjoyed the story overall but it needed a tighter focus. There were too many characters which made it hard for me to connect with any one in particular. Some of the plot points got a little confusing for me and didn‘t feel like they were really resolved. ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

I grew up with Sesame Street, The Muppets, and Fraggle Rock so I really enjoyed reading about the man who brought them all to life. Jim Henson was a truly exceptional person—creative, collaborative, generous, silly. At times this book could get a little bogged down in minutiae, going through the events of Henson‘s life in almost daily detail. But overall I enjoyed learning more about his life and the incredible contributions he made to puppetry.

Definitely a slow starter, Morton was finally able to get the story moving and I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. She has a habit of ending chapters with a cliffhanger that compels you to keep reading. I‘m also a sucker for a story involving an old English manor and I loved hearing about Loanneth. The ending wraps up all of the stories neatly—almost too neatly. Could probably have been edited down a bit but overall a pick. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

I managed to finish one more book before the end of the year. Lisa See is an excellent writer and I always learn so much from her books. Inspired by a real woman, this story centers around Yunxian and her life in 15th century China as she grows up to become a talented physician who treats women. I loved her depictions of the relationships between many types of women—mothers, daughters, and friends. It was good to close out the year with a pick!

This book has been taking up space on my shelf for years. The good thing is I can take the space back for something better. I just didn‘t enjoy this at all. Edie is the adult daughter of a serial killer. She develops an unhealthy obsession with the families of the victims and stalks them.There were some weird plot twists that did not add anything to the story. I won this in a Goodreads giveaway, otherwise I would never have picked this up.

I enjoyed this book following Elton John from his start growing up as a boy named Reginald Dwight to his transformation into a successful musician. He goes into detail about his struggles with drug addiction and how he was able to get sober and find happiness with his husband and 2 sons. He is quite funny at times and drops just enough celebrity gossip to keep things fun without turning into gratuitous name-dropping.

Well, I finished this book today and I‘m still not sure what to think. It‘s a story-within-a-story-within a story which is very creative. It‘s also an example of ergodic literature—the author plays with the text itself, which you can see in this photo. Sometimes the text is backwards, written in a swirl, or maybe a whole page with only one word. Again, very creative, but I‘m not sure what it all added up to in the end.

This is the only TJR book I‘ve read so far that I didn‘t like. Lauren was pretty insufferable, which made it hard for me to empathize with her during her marriage problems. Her husband Ryan wasn‘t much better. Lauren‘s family was the best part of the story, especially her siblings. Photo is of the decoration we put out every year. Happy Halloween 🎃 👻

As someone who loves to read anything related to mountain climbing, I just devoured this book. Krakhauer is a phenomenal writer. One of the biggest things this book made me consider is how much we focus on getting to the summit of Everest without considering the dangers faced in coming down the mountain. Also, I was fascinated by his admission that exhaustion and oxygen deprivation played a huge role in his actions during the storm in May 1996.

As someone who loves to read anything related to mountain climbing, I just devoured this book. Krakhauer is a phenomenal writer. One of the biggest things this book made me consider is how much we focus on getting to the summit of Everest without considering the dangers faced in coming down the mountain. Also, I was fascinated by his admission that exhaustion and oxygen deprivation played a huge role in his actions during the storm in May 1996.

I‘m not sure why I keep reading thrillers when I end up feeling disappointed every time.I‘m not usually one of those people who can guess a twist before it happens, but even I had some idea of where this story was going.Story is based on the Greek myth of Alcestis who volunteers to die in her husband‘s place. When she is brought back to life, she refuses to speak ever again.Based on the writing style I could tell the author has written screenplays

I picked up this book mainly for the setting. Una is a grifter and conwoman in NYC in the 1880s. When she gets into trouble, she takes a spot in the Bellevue training school for nurses to hide from the police. It was fascinating to see what it may have been like for these women when the field of nursing was in its infancy. The image I chose was featured in the book and is a very early blood transfusion. There was also a very obvious murder mystery

I had really high hopes for this one. The beginning of the story really drew me in, and I wish we would have spent more time with Proctor as he was doing his job as a ferryman. The writing on a sentence by sentence level is absolutely gorgeous. I got busy with work and ended up having to put this down for a bit, which could have contributed, but the plot became overly complicated for me to follow. The ending also felt like it was missing something

@dabbe And here‘s our Snoopy. I think you can see now how she got her name. She‘s enjoying showing Happy the ropes and teaching him all of her best techniques for begging for treats ❤️

@dabbe As promised, this is my sweet Happy who joined us last month from Australia. He‘s been a handful sometimes, but he is also a total love bug 💙 He‘s been a great companion for Snoopy.

Sue Black is a world-renowned forensic anthropologist. In this book she discusses her career and her personal life. I found the sections about her work identifying victims of the war in Kosovo in the late 1990s and the tsunami in 2004 quite interesting and impactful. Her general musings on death and the deaths of her parents take up the first half of the book and were far less interesting to me. ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

I think I downloaded this book for free on Amazon World Book Day a few years ago. Translated from Portuguese, all of these short stories take place in Brazil and feature love between women. There are no quotation marks, and at times the words read more like poetic musings than actual stories. While I appreciated the ideas here, it was hard for me to really connect with anything as is often the case with short stories. ⭐️⭐️/5

I love a good non-fiction survival story, and this book was no exception. A.H. Greely took a crew of 25 men to explore the northernmost points of the Arctic in 1885. Due to a series of unfortunate events, they were left stranded there and were unable to be rescued for 2 years, at which point there were only 7 survivors. During that 2 years period when they were literally starving to death, did some of the men resort to cannibalism? Maybe. . .

I enjoyed this modern day Muslim retelling of “You‘ve Got Mail.” Hana is trying to break into broadcasting while also working to keep her family‘s restaurant open. When a new restaurant opens in the neighborhood with a sexy new owner, it‘s a good thing Hana has her loyal online friend to turn to (you can guess who that is). There were still a few plot twists that I didn‘t expect, and I loved closeness of Hana‘s family. The food sounded amazing 😋

Historical fiction inspired by the author‘s family, this story is set in Kentucky, Missouri, then the oil fields of Kansas in the 1910s-1920s. The story follows Bertie whose mother dies young and leaves her to care for her 4 little brothers and sisters. Despite being only 16 years old, Bertie marries a very kind man who loves her and takes in her younger sisters. I didn‘t exactly expect this to be an upbeat story but it was quite bleak. 2.5/5

Although this book was very good and the movie followed it closely, I think this is one of the rare cases where the movie is actually better than the book. The book spends a fair bit of time on side characters and plots outside of the Corleone family that are just not as interesting. There was something about the writing style that made it very easy to read, I can see why it was on the bestseller lists for 70 weeks when it came out.

Nora Nierling is the daughter of a serial killer. She grew up, became a surgeon, and worked hard to distance herself from her father and what he did. Then, 2 women are killed in the same way her father used to murder his victims so she must figure out what is going on. I read this for book club and it was fine. There was a twist at the end that I did not expect but otherwise the writing was pretty average.

After the financial crash in the US in 2008, the author thought that moving her family to Vietnam would be a super easy way to save money. Well, guess what—Did you know that teaching English as a second language is actually hard? And that Vietnam is really hot and humid? Apparently the author didn‘t. But after seeing people living in actual poverty she was able to feel better about her own life once she moved back to LA.

This Breakfast Club meets Gossip Girl YA murder mystery was a fun read. 5 students are in detention when Simon, who runs a gossip app, dies from from an allergic reaction. In the investigation that follows, it seems as if he knew a secret that each of the remaining 4 students would not want to get out. So who is to blame for Simon‘s death? I actually listened to this on audio and I liked the multiple narrators that voiced each of the 4 students.

I love survival stories so I thought this book involving not one but two shipwrecks would be right up my alley. Alas, I found the writing to be incredibly dry. I found myself skimming through multiple pages of text describing species of plants & ship building techniques. And while I acknowledge that these men needed to eat sea lions to survive, I was not prepared for the many descriptions of the brutal ways they were killed. ⚓️⚓️/5

I won this book in a #GoodreadsGiveaway ♥️📚 Too bad I have actual dirty laundry I need to deal with today instead of reading

This is probably an #unpopularopinion, but this book just did not land for me. I listened to this on audio and I had to speed it up because it felt like it would never end. I did not appreciate the author dropping in random obscure words that served no purpose other than to make her sound smart. The characters did not communicate with each other, then argued and held grudges for years. It was also quite sad at times. ⭐️⭐️/5

As I am not Catholic,I was hesitant to read this,but I quite enjoyed it.The story begins with Phillippa leaving her high-level job to enter the Benedictine order at Brede,which shocks her friends.As she learns her place & adjusts to the contemplative life the nuns lead in this order,we get to meet her sisters & explore the dramas that apparently accompany any group of women who live together.There was a lovely feeling of peace throughout this book

The plot centers around Dr. Abby Whitmore who seems to spend most of the story agonizing over dating a ranger who is possessive, touches her even when she asks him not to, and eventually cheats on her.Interspersed among this drama are heavy-handed scenes of her caring for patients, who seem to love being lectured about diabetes management and the importance of getting mammograms.I received this book in a Goodreads Giveaway, all opinions are mine

Hannah lives in London & answers a wrong number call from an American named Davey.This starts a relationship between them through phone and video calls.When Davey is due to arrive in London to start his new job and meet Hannah in person, he doesn‘t show up.We learn the reason why, which is very sad, but then we have to spend the majority of the book with the 2 of them not even talking & dating other people which feels wrong to me.